Qualcomm has announced its Quick Charge 2.0 technology, with the promise that it will cut handset and tablet charging time by up to 75 per cent.

A follow-up from the Quick Charge 1.0 technology rolled into 70 devices last year, the 2.0 version is baked right into the device power management and will need to be fuelled by a Quick Charge 2.0 AC/DC wall charger to get the maximal benefit.

According to the company, Quick Charge 2.0 will first be available for smartphones and tablets which feature its Snapdragon 800 processor announced at CES 2013. Qualcomm says it found a tablet that usually takes 7 hours to charge would be knocked down to 3 hours, thanks to its new tech.

Quick Charge 2.0 and 1.0 device chargers play nicely with each other, being backwards and forwards compatible. Devices sporting a Snapdragon 800 processor inside will ship with a Quick Charge 2.0 charger, even though they can also be charged with 1.0 charges - it's just the optimal speed won't be reached.

Qualcomm has also announced that its Snapdragon 800 processor supports voice activation. While devices on the market already feature voice recognition, Qualcomm's solution is on the hardware level rather than software level. The idea is to have low -power, always-on, voice recognition, rather than something that needs a prompt, like pressing a button.

We'll just have to wait and see how companies plan to use this technology. Qualcomm says Quick Charge 2.0 supported devices will be available in early 2014, but says there will be more than 55 Snapdragon 800 devices in development, coming to market in the second half of 2013.